Sunday, June 24, 2012

This morning Vanessa pm'd me about the 3 x 3 cards. While I tried to answer her questions in written form, I knew that showing her might make it easier. I am a visual person and it is easier to for me to explain while you are looking at the photos. Sorry for the bad scan but the bottom card was too bulky and lifted the scanner lid.

These are 3 strings of cards for a 3 x 3 Card swap at the SU Convention in July.

Card 1 - I stamped the image onto white cardstock. Then colored it with my SU markers. Then I matted the image onto Pretty in Pink cardstock. After matting I colored in my cupcake icing with Crystal Effects and sprinkled some diamond dust in that. I had to sit it to the side to dry overnight. The card base is cut 6 x 3 and then scored at 3 on the long end. I did nothing to the base. As my own personal habit, I did cut a 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 piece of white cardstock to put inside the card. I like to write on the neutral papers of white or very vanilla and not on the darker cardstock.

Card 2 - I stamped the Naughty or Nice saying with my Cherry Cobbler and Gumball Green markers onto Very Vanilla Cardstock. I then punched the sentiment out using a round punch. The Gumball Green wreath shape is from the new 3 doily sizzlet die. I think it is the medium shape. I just knew when I put the round sentiment on it that it reminded me of a wreath. I added a a bow to the wreath. I took red line tape and added it to my Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon. Then I folded it in half lengthwise. This gave me a smaller width of ribbon to work with for my cards. I made the ribbons using the "FORK BOW METHOD". I cut the card base 6 x 3 and then scored it at 3 on the long side. I did add a small strip of Be of Good Cheer Designer Paper. The strip was 3 inches across and 2 dots deep. I pop dotted the wreath to this. Of course, there is a piece of 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 inch very vanilla cardstock added to the inside of the card.

Card 3 - The snail card was fun. I stamped the snail onto white cardstock. Then colored it in. I rounded the corners of the white cardstock. Then matted it to the Tempting Turquoise cardstock. I also rounded those corners. After all that, then I added the yellow buttons (they are the ones that remind me of Life Savers!) and added a pearl to the button. I do have a background stamped on the Old Olive cardstock using Old Olive ink. And again there is a matching white insert cut 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 placed inside this card.

Vanessa, I hope this answered all your questions about the swap! Have fun making yours!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

This is my other Card Candy Swap entry. I used Stampin Up's Little Friends set. This card candy will make 3 cards. I used the Label Framelits for one design, the Big Shot Scallop Square for another and finally the Big Shot Scallop Envelope for the final design.

I love this sweet little set. I used markers to color in the designs. It is more vibrant in real life. Sorry my scanner does not pick that up. Note the little brads on the wheels of the boy's wagon too. How easy would it be to grab a card base and make a card with any of these prestamped/colored/and matted designs. You could do a very simple card by only adding the card candy. You could step it up a level by adding a textured embossing folder background. You could add ribbons and patterned paper. The point is you can easily go from simple to more elaborate with the artwork provided.

I like this swap so much, I made an application at our scrapbooking/cardmaking group on Ning.com (The Crop Room) to host a both a CARD CANDY and a SCRAPBOOKING CANDY swap in mid July. I got the email it was approved! YEAH!!!! I will post it after I return from Convention.

The only difference in the 2 types of swaps - Card Candy and Scrapbook Candy is the focus. In Card Candy you are making your "homemade" jolee's to work on the front of a several cards. In Scrapbook Candy you are making your "homemade" jolee's to work on a single 12 x 12 double page scrapbook layout. I think this will be a neat way to showcase our work and allow my mind to expand in some new directions ! I know (by request of Lois) that one of my scrapbook candy pages will be a "Western Theme". She saw a scrapbook layout I did at Christmas in a western theme and loved it.

On the health front, this is morning 1 after chemo. Things seem to be going smoothly. Woke at 5:30 and laid in bed til 6:15 just watching some TV. Then fed the furrballs and took a nausea pill. Best to keep that at bay you know. I try to stay ahead of it. Had a banana and a bottle of water and need to go take an insulin shot next.

Tanya is coming at 8 to help me rearrange one one in my therapy room. I bought 5 more white cubes at Michael's yesterday. Assembled them all last night. Whew that was work! Kept dropping those little screws -- chemo messes my fine motor skills up alot. Then I put together the new living room lamp. Bought me a swinging arm lamp with a 3 way bulb for my recliner area a couple of weeks ago. Then yesterday, the end table I had been eyeing at Hobby Lobby finally went down to $89. It has been slowly creeping down from $150, which I deemed tooo much money. After all that could be an SU order and a girl has her priorities --- lol. Only another demo would understand and love that sidenote. LOL Anyway that table is in my car to be brought in. It is moon shaped. I mean the back is straight and flat and will lay against the wall - no more things falling off like the current table. The front is half circle or moon shape as I call it. It has a single drawer to it. Wish it had a shelf but could not find one that did. It is a very dark brown but has distressed marks on it that I could live without. It will be next to a cream colored recliner. My other chairs/ottomans (I have 2 of them each) are a deep brown. The new laminate floor in the living room, goes in on Friday. They are a two tone laminate moving from a medium light wood grain to a medium dark wood grain. Got to run to Lowe's today and grab some pads for the bottom of the furniture to make it easier to move it and then also to avoid marring the floor. So excited to have this new flooring in place of that nasty shag carpet that was here when I moved in! Should of done this at the beginning but oh well.... it is done (or should I say) PAID for now.

Next week I have to go to Sam's and get my moving/rolling steel shelves for my garage. That is the next task to accomplish this summer. I want my 2 car garage organized and the boxes all finally unpacked. I moved into this house 2 years ago and that task is not done. There were reasons too.... moved in July. Sis got ill near the end of July and I went on child duty with Austin. Then I scheduled it for the following summer of 2011. Heck I went out of remission in January and last summer I was on weekly chemo - so that was out. I have to get this done this summer! There is only room for my car in that garage and finding stuff is a pain!

This is the shelving I am probably going to purchase for my garage. At least this way, I can roll the shelves away from the walls to occasionally sweep out the garage. That and I can move the car out and Tanya and I can load directly to the shelves from the boxes. Hate to have to pull out 3 rows deep of boxes to put standard shelves in and then have to unload those same boxes. This way we unpack as we go. Afterwards we simply roll our shelves against the wall (and I get a chance to clean the floor too!). I know I need one shelving unit just for my Christmas tubs. And remember I have alot of my mom's stuff still in boxes. Want to find it all and sort it so the family can go thru once more. There are 3 boxes that belong to sis that mom had packed for her sitting in the garage too. I think I am going to get 4 of these for now. Later I might go and get another couple for the other side of the room. But I have a large cabinet Bruno (my brother) built for Mom's alterations business, and an old metal china cabinet and an old metal desk of Mom's in the garage, plus a file cabinet of mine. I just want it neat and clean in there. Shelves along each side and the items organized. I am sort of anal about that and the garage drives me nuts. Hate to say I even have a guest room closet still filled with boxes. I just want my house decluttered!

Okay steriods at work. Can't you see how much I chatter on these things! Geesh.... glad they will be wearing off by tomorrow.

Have a great day! I am off to the therapy room to start moving things so we can set these white cubbies in the room! Might even take photos for you!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Wonder what Card Candy is? Imagine having/creating your own Jolee's. You could use them for fast cards or
scrapbooking pages. You could use them to amaze your hostesses with a card candy
gift for them to use or door prizes to show how you could use a stamp set.

I am hosting a Card Candy swap through Splitcoaststampers at the 2012 Stampin Up Convention in July 2012. I am in two different groups for this swap. These are my card candy entries.

Above you see I used the Stampin Up Mouthwatering stamp set to make 4 different designs with sentiments to accompant the designs. Whoever gets these can make 4 cards simply by mounting them to a card base.

Above is Stampin Up Little Friends stamp set. This time I only have 3 different designs with the sentiments added to the design. I tried to use several of the sizzix dies (scallop square and scallop envelope) as well as the labels framelits. Whoever gets these can make 3 cards simply by mounting them to a card base.

I had participated in a Card Candy swap in January at the Leadership Conference in San Antonio. I loved the items I got at that swap (scroll back to late January posts to view them). So I decided to host the swap at Convention. I have 2 groups of 8 ladies making Card Candy items.

My downline, Micki, did an awesome masculine set with The Open Sea. She did such an outstanding job on hers. But she does not want to show them until after Convention, so I am respecting her wishes.

For those friends on our scrapbooking ning group, The Crop Room, I plan to write Francine to do a Card Candy swap in August or September. Be thinking on it! Let me survive the Convention swaps before I add more to my plate.

On other note. Today was Chemo # 67. Glad it is over. My counts are low -- red blood is at 10.7 but I cannot have a transfusion until it hits 9.9. Normal red blood (the low side of normal) is 12.0. That explains why I am so weak in stamina and of course why I cannot raise arms to lift or move stuff without getting dizzy -- not enough oxygen traveling in my blood. At least I can still sit and stamp and still sit and read my kindle.

All this sitting however is for the birds. I miss having some activity. Hard to loose weight like this -- plus the steriods are NO HELP at all. I am so hungry on the 3 steriod days and my mind races like crazy. I have to take something at night to sleep just to turn off my racing brain. UGH.... Hopefully the August scans will place me back at every 3 weeks for chemo instead of the current 2 weeks.

Okay speaking of food... need to take my night meds (insulin and senokot for the carbo issue and a potassium pill and EAT... told you FOOD drives me for 3 days. Eat, eat, eat. Plus I got a lasix shot in addition to my fluid pills today. So it is off to drink water (so thirsty) and then guess where you have to visit to deposit all that water? I am on my 5th bottle so far today! What a circle! Input and Output.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

This is the left side of my 8 x 8 layout of March for my scrapbook swap at the Stampin Up Convention in July. I decided to host the swap on Splitcoaststampers and I took the final month. Made me laugh that I got March yet again. I had the March layout in a 6 x 6 swap at Leadership in January. The leprechan was made out of Stampin Up Punch shapes. Then each shape was sponged to add dimensional prior to assembly. Still need a belt buckle on him but I am waiting for the demo preorder on July 1st to order some Gold Glimmer Paper.

This is the right side of my 8 x 8 double page layout. I used the Old Olive Chevron design paper from Summer Smoochies, the Old Olive Polka Dot Designer Paper and a stripe of the Old Olive paper from the Brights Designer Series paper stack. The letters for the word March are from the Stamp Set, Lovely Letters Alphabet. I sponged all the photo mats with Old Olive too.

This is one of my 16 different swaps I am participating in at the Stampin Up Convention on July 18-20th. I have really extended myself and am working like a dog to get my swaps done. Sis is hosting the Annual Sheffield Sleepover the week before Convention, so I need to be wrapped up as much as possible by the 7th of July.

What is the Sheffield Sleepover? Well, on our scrapbooking/cardmaking site THE CROP ROOM over at Ning.com, we get together once a year for an entire week. Folks stay at sis's house or my house if they are out of towners. And yes, we get alot of out of town buddies. Last summer I had Susan P. from Chattanooga, TN; Lois from Russell, KS; and Kathy from Loomis, CA staying at my home. Sis had Sondra from Ohio; Becky from Nevada; Janice from Mississippi staying with her. Then Sue and Mike came from Alabama but they like staying in a hotel. Plus our local buddies, Micki, Nita, Angie, Debbie, and Tanya drop in. We all take turns serving/prepping meals and fun early morning til late at night we are all in sis's Therapy Room (her scrapbook room). She has 4 tables that are 8 foot long. Folks work on cards or scrapbook pages. Some bring things to share or do mini classes with everyone. Some bring work that want to accomplish. Just alot of fun. So that runs from July 6 to July 15 (we have a few coming a bit early).

Then I fly out on Sunday morning, July 15 for Salt Lake City, Utah. I am heading there for a whole week for the Stampin Up Convention, and to see enjoy myself. I would like to get to the genealogy site there too. Want to spend some time with my friend Jackie that lives in Draper, Utah. That first night I am going to a dinner and a swap (recipe swaps this time) with a group called the Late Night Stampers. Monday, I hope to spend some time with Jackie or doing genealogy research... Tuesday all my roommates are flying in!

I have 3 roommates - first and foremost is my dear sideline, Sandy. She is coming from Denver and is my # 1 SU roomie when I travel to these SU events. Then my downline, Gail is coming from Oregon. Plus her downline, Pat (who has been my online buddy for 10 years!) and I have yet to meet either lady in person. Am excited about that!

This is my 2nd convention. I went in 2008, but then had a relapse in August.... and eventually ended up those 6 weeks in the hospital in late 2008-early 2009. You remember, that is when they tried to get me to go to hospice. Instead, I had 4 more surgeries (God Bless sweet Dr. Gilbert) and got a new oncologist (Dr. Baltz). While I have fell out of remission again since then, I am doing good again. My last surgery was Feb 2011. Cross your fingers that my scans in August let me move out to chemo treatments every 3 weeks. Dr. Baltz kept me on every 2 weeks for the rest of the summer. :<

So much has been going on around here. Got so many things I am trying to accomplish in my time off. Seems this is the 1st summer I have been in this house that I am able to do things. I moved in July 2010. Then school started and I did not ever finish unpacking one closet full of boxes and the garage. Ugh... Then medical leave hit for the next spring/summer and was too weak to do any labor intensive work like that.

Next week I go to Sam's (like a Costco) to purchase these awesome metal shelving on rollers. Then Tanya is coming over to help me sort thru the garage boxes and make some room in my 2 car garage (sadly only 1 car can fit in it right now...). Then on Monday the 25th, I have an electrician coming to work on my lighting in the scrapbook room -- hoping we can get some track lighting above the work tables so I can do classes at night. Finally on Friday, the 29th, I have laminate floors being put in my living room. Can't wait to loose that nasty carpet. I have carpet in the 3 bedrooms, and ceramic tile everywhere else. I should of asked to have the living room carpet replaced when I purchased the house and did not. Oh well, I think I will prefer to have the laminate in there.

Okay that is enough of a catch up. I promise to be better in posting. I will try to get back every day or other day with photos of my convention swaps.

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About Me

My name is Arlene. I live in Benton, Arkansas and my full time job is being special ed teacher. Stampin Up is a big part of my life. As a demonstrator I hold workshops, card making classes, scrapbook classes and stamp clubs.